If you didn’t make it to Melbourne on the weekend, or even if you did, here’s your chance to relive the 2012 Australian Grand Prix. With thanks to the F1 teams we bring you almost 100 photos from Albert Park as our F1 in pictures series returns. Remember to click on the pics to open a 2000px super image.
The dust has settled, the crowds are enjoying Melbourne’s nightlife and the FIA has released the transcript of the post-race press conference from the Australian Grand Prix.
It goes without saying that Jenson Button now leads the drivers’ championship and with a first and third to their name McLaren also takes the early lead in the constructors’ race.
Read on to see what Jenson, Sebastian and Lewis had to say after the race.
Jenson Button has won the 2012 Australian Grand Prix by 2.1 seconds from Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton, a further 1.9 seconds back, claimed the final podium position.
Despite yet another poor start, in which he dropped four places, Mark Webber recovered well to fight back to fourth place. That’s his best result in Melbourne following a trio of fifth places in 2002, 2005 and 2011.
In the early corners Webber found himself mid-pack and was sandwiched between two other cars who both made contact with the Red Bull’s front wheels. In a rare stroke of luck for Mark in Melbourne his car was not damaged and he showed excellent race pace from that point forward.
Jenson Button claimed the race lead from teammate and pole sitter Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and controlled the race thereafter. He would have become a little tense with around 15 laps to go after the Safety Car was deployed to allow an expired Caterham to be removed from pit straight.
However, on the restart he quickly established a 2.5 second lead over second-placed Vettel. For the remainder of the race the top four cars were spread by little more than five seconds, but with clean racing and no mistakes being made there were no late race dramas and Button comfortably claimed his third Australian Grand Prix title.
An impromptu experiment to see if you can stack V8 Supercars one on top of the other failed at the Australian Grand Prix yesterday.
Tipped off by James Courtney, Jamie Whincup set up the all-Holden Commodore experiment by parking his car in the middle of the track. Karl Reindler, Taz Douglas and Russell Ingall then obliged by trying to squeeze Douglas’ car on top of Ingall’s, using the other two V8s as barriers.
Despite the best efforts of the four men the experiment didn’t work, although they did go close and with more work that might pull it off. Thankfully, no driver was hurt in the incident.
Check out the video after the break.
When 22-year-old Daniel Ricciardo and 35-year-old Mark Webber line up on the grid today it will be the first time ever two Australians have started an FIA-sanctioned Australian Grand Prix.
It’s an amazing stat when you consider there are no Italian drivers in F1 this year. You have to wind the clock back over four decades to 1969 to see when that last happened. Indeed, in 1989, the year of Ricciardo’s birth, there were 14 Italian drivers in F1. Now, the young West Australian with his latin heritage is Italy’s best hope, alongside Scotsman Paul di Resta.
Further rubbing it into the Italians is the fact that Ricciardo will start today’s race as the highest qualifier using Ferrari power. The factory Ferraris are back in P12 and P16, while the Ferrari-powered Saubers qualified in P13 and P17.
We’ve taken inspiration for our headline from a recent commenter here at AUSmotive and we’re sure all our readers will join us in wishing Daniel and Mark the best of luck for this afternoon’s race.
Daniel Ricciardo has already ticked off one of this season’s goals by qualifying in the top 10 for today’s Australian Grand Prix. The 22-year-old Toro Rosso driver is confident that good showing can translate into a solid race result.
“The ambition at the start of the weekend, as far as qualifying was concerned, was to get into Q3 and we have achieved that,” Ricciardo said.
“Before we got to Melbourne, we did not have a clear idea of how our pace would compare with the other teams. In fact, I thought Q3 might have been a little bit out of reach, so this was a really positive result for me and for the team.”
Tenth place represents the highest starting position in Ricciardo’s young F1 career and he’s hoping a good start off the line will set him up for a good finishing position in his maiden Australian Grand Prix.
“We should have a strong race as we are in good shape, so it will be a case of trying to get the best start possible followed by a good opening lap and see how we get on from there,” he said.
“It will be a bit of a new experience for me compared to last year as this is the first time I start a Grand Prix from as high as the mid-field.”
Ricciardo’s intra-team battle with rookie Jean-Eric Vergne will be one of 2012’s highlights and with the Frenchman alongside him in P11 their interactions during the race will be worth monitoring.
“We have laid the groundwork for Sunday and Jean-Eric is not far behind me, which will keep me on my toes, so as a team we can be pleased with the work we have done.â€
[Pic: Toro Rosso/Getty Images]
Following his fifth place in qualifying Mark Webber is hopeful it will bring him good luck. Today will be Webber’s 11th race start in the Australian Grand Prix and so far the best he has to show for it is a trio of fifth places (2002, 2005 and 2011).
Aside from his debut race here with Minardi back in 2002, where a fifth place was something of a minor miracle, his results since haven’t met his expectations, not to mention those of a demanding public.
Speaking after qualifying Mark didn’t exactly sound as though he was filled with confidence his luck is about to change.
“Fifth is my lucky number here, but we’re looking to go forward and it is a long year,” he said.
“I’m not happy where we are on the grid. I feel we will find out tomorrow how we are on Sunday afternoons. Saturday [qualifying] is not our strength right now.”
Although, it does appear that Webber has confidence in the RB8 even though he feels they need more time to develop its potential.
“We would have liked to have had a bit better track time and having a slightly better understanding of the car, but the base is absolutely there,” Webber explained.
“We need to leave here with some points in the bank and we need to massage more out of this car quite quickly.”
[Source: ABC | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
So we have two McLarens on the front row for the 2012 Australian Grand Prix. That’s probably not such a big surprise, certainly not as much as seeing the Red Bulls two rows further back. The real surprise, of course, is seeing 25-year-old Romain Grosjean in P3 in just his eighth race and his first visit to Australia.
Grosjean has shown the Lotus is no flash in the pan, too; he has been near the top of the timesheets more than once this weekend. Could he win it? Well anything can happen in Formula One…
After the break you can read what the first three men had to say after qualifying.
A fascinating qualifying period at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix has ended with Lewis Hamilton claiming pole position for McLaren. He was the only man to break the 1:25 barrier with a time of 1:24.922, en route to his 20th pole position.
In second place was Jenson Button (1:25.074) completing a front-row lockout for the Mercedes-powered McLarens.
Romain Grosjean, fast emerging as the dark horse for the 2012 F1 season, finished third for Lotus (1:25.302). Michael Schumacher will start alongside the young Frenchman after he came home fourth with a 1:25.336.
That means Red Bull will start tomorrow’s race from an unfamiliar row three, with Webber in P5 (1:25.651) and Vettel alongside in P6 (1:25.668). Yep, you better believe it, this season is wide open now.
The remaining places in the top 10 were claimed by Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG, 1:25.686), Pastor Maldonado (Williams, 1:25.908), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India, 1:26.451) and Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso, no time).
Full results from qualifying are available here. We’ll have pics and the full post-quali transcript for you later tonight.
Qualifying is about to start at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix but we thought we’d share with you a few observations from trackside. During Free Practice 3 we watched proceedings between Turns 4 and 6.
Three things were clear. In a sea of hackneyed platypus nosed dogs the McLaren MP4-27 stands out as a really great looking car. We’ve grabbed a few pics from Friday’s practice to support our claims.
The HRT’s, god bless’ em, are little more than mobile chicanes. They are visibly slower and from what we’ve seen will serve to build up the arm muscles of the flag marshalls and not much else.
Of most interest, however, was the sound made by the two Red Bull RB8’s on the entry to Turn 6. Clearly different to all the other cars on track they exhibited an off throttle note that was somewhat reminiscent of the spluttering noises made last year when the engine tunes were busy feeding exhaust blown diffusers.
As a side note watching an F1 car from behind as it makes its way from Turn 6 and on to Turns 7 and 8 is a wonderful sight.
In bright, sunny conditions Lewis Hamilton sent McLaren to the top of the timesheets in the final practice session before this afternoon’s qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix. It was the first totally dry period of the weekend and Hamilton’s time of 1:25.681 is the early benchmark.
Showing their pre-season pace was no fluke Lotus sit comfortably inside the top three with their returning F1 driver posting a time of 1:25.758. But it wasn’t the 2007 World Champion, Kimi Raikonnen, instead the former Renault driver, Romain Grosjean, who was just 0.077 seconds behind.
Australia’s best chance of a home win in Melbourne rests with Mark Webber and he has indicated his Red Bull will be at the pointy end of qualifying by setting the third fastest time in FP3. Webber’s best lap of 1:25.900 was only 0.225s behind the leading McLaren.
Jenson Button was fourth, with the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, despite an excursion in the kitty litter, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.
Sebastian Vettel provided light drama when he went into the gravel with 15 minutes of the session remaining. He was unable to rejoin but the dual world champion still managed with seventh fastest time with a 1:26.211.
Pastor Maldonado will have impressed his team boss Frank Williams by putting the Fw34 in eighth. Sergio Perez will also ensure Peter Sauber has a grin on his face after completing practice with the ninth fastest time. Daniel Riccardo rounded out the top 10 some 1.042 seconds behind Hamilton.
We expect there’ll be glum faces in the Ferrari pit with Fernando Alonso back in sixteenth (1:27.323) and Felipe Massa eighteenth (1:28.023). You’d reckon it will be tough for them to fight their way into Q3 from there.
HRT also struggled and they may find it difficult to post a time within 107% of the fastest Q1 qualifier which could put them in jeopardy for Sunday’s race.
You can see a full list of times after the break and we’ll be back with more after the qualifying.
At the Geneva Motor Show August Achleitner, Manager of the 911 model line, popped in to give us a rundown on the new Porsche 911 Cabriolet.
Achleitner tells us Porsche has made a lot of improvements to the performance and handling but they’re keeping Greenpeace at bay by also reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
More importantly, though, the 911 convertible is both stiffer and lighter than before. This all leads to Achleitner declaring, “This is still a sports car.”
If a cabrio 911 is your thing you’ll be able to visit your local Porsche Centre to pick one up next month.
Check out the clip after the break.